In Remembrance of Dwayne McDuffie

Yesterday marked the two year anniversary of the passing of Dwayne McDuffie.  Most of us don’t give any thought to those who write the comic stories we read or see on television and in the movies.  But some of us do follow the writers and are tremendously saddened by their passing.

Such was the case for me regarding Dwayne McDuffie.   It is true that death makes sinners and saints out of all of us and Mr. McDuffie is no exception.  I prefer to think of him as an extremely talented writer and a role model for my own artistic endeavors.  His last work was entitled Justice League: Doom and was a retelling of Mark Waid’s JLA: Tower of Babel.  It was typical McDuffie, in that it was smart, fast paced and in this viewer’s opinion way too short.

His storytelling has been missed, but fortunately the work of Dwayne McDuffie still remains only a DVD away.  Below is a repost of a piece I wrote two years ago upon hearing of his death.

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I learned this afternoon that Dwayne McDuffie passed away today due to complications from surgery last night. As I prepared to write a small tribute to the man, I realized that the last time I wrote something about him, it was relative to his being fired from the DC Comic series, Justice League of America in May 2009. At the time, I noted that I found it strange that a man who gave his fans so little spoiler information was fired for giving out too much.  Now as then, I have never really forgiven McDuffie for leaving the Shayera Hol/ John Stewart relationship in the tangled mess it was at the end of the animated Justice League Unlimited run. However, Dwayne McDuffie was one the most talented and consistent comic book writers to come along in the last 20 years and in the long run, my personal displeasure does not diminish the writing talent he had.

It’s been noted by others that he and the pioneering company he helped create, Milestone Media, had creative and legal issues with DC Comics and those issues made the licensing of Milestone characters almost nil. The Milestone characters included Hardware, Icon and Static who later became the animated series Static Shock. Despite ongoing legal battles, McDuffie remained protective of his characters literally until the day he died noting with almost childish glee on 19 February that Static was returning to DC in a comic book series in May. He also noted with sarcasm on that same date that Static was finally getting action figure as part of Mattel ending its JLU action figure toy run.

Dwayne McDuffie wrote for Marvel, Archie Comics (yes, the Betty and Veronica Archie) and returned to write for DC before being fired two years ago. He wrote for the DCAU and that’s where he first came to my attention. He wrote very strong female characters and sometimes invoke the ire of the “fan boys” by doing so. In the Teen Titans episode, “Fear Itself,” McDuffie showed a side of Raven to his audience that most had not seen, yet alone contemplated. But because Raven was the star, the episode was pounded on most sites, except Toonzone, as being “predictable” and “foreseeable.”  But this episodes ranks as one of the best of the series for its character study of Raven.

My favorite McDuffie story remained without a doubt, the Justice League episode, “Hereafter,” because that story is about the world carrying on after the death of a hero. Somehow, tonight, that story seems strangely appropriate for how I feel with this loss of a personal hero. Mr. McDuffie will be missed, but his work remains only a DVD away.